A former police sergeant who stole €26,498 from police headquarters has been placed under a three-year probation order and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty to the crime.

Adrian Lia, 42, from San Gwann was found guilty of having taken the money on 16 separate occasions between 2006 to 2011.

The court, presided by magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona, heard the accused admit to having kept for himself sums which were regularly confiscated in the course of police investigations and which were meant to be deposited in court.

Rather than hand over the money as he was duty bound to do, the accused kept part of the money to himself.

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In delivering judgment the court noted that the accused had returned all the money taken from the police headquarters.

The court declared the accused guilty and placed him under a three-year probation order. The former police officer was ordered to perform 100 hours of community work and was interdicted for life.

Inspectors Fabian Fleri and Melvyn Camilleri prosecuted. Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi was defence counsel.

Back in 1997, Mr Lia had been awarded a medal for bravery after having claimed to have saved a drowning swimmer in Sliema. However, he was later stripped of his honour when his version of events was found to be incorrect.

The same officer was also involved in the case of Nicholas Azzopardi who, on his deathbed in hospital in 2008, had alleged to have been badly manhandled at the police depot. Mr Lia had testified to having struggled to restrain Mr Azzopardi before the latter had allegedly jumped off the bastions in Floriana. Two court inquiries had subsequently exonerated the police of any wrongdoing in this case.